Empathy
by TheWingedOne
Summary: By powerful beings, special links can be formed between two organisms of the same species. What happens when you put one on a certain blond Viking teenager? Bad things, if you mean Astrid. And worse things, if you mean it's Hiccup you're linking her with.
1. Forgotten Nightmares

**I should be doing other things right now... but... AUGH. This has been in my head all day.**

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For one week, the boy with brown hair had been asleep.

After the battle with the queen dragon, or the Green Death, whom was manipulating the smaller dragons around it, Hiccup had taken a while to wake up after falling into that ring of fire. But when he did, he collapsed yet again on the same day.

Right in the middle of a celebratory feast.

And he didn't get back up.

So now, one week after that, he was found to have a fever, which many of the healers thought was due to colossal pain in his leg. Gobber had been feeling terribly guilty, but everyone knew that if Hiccup woke up, he'd be trying to assure to Gobber that everything was fine.

..._when_ Hiccup woke up.

It was the seventh night of Hiccup's slumber. Here Astrid was, sitting on some mix between a wooden stool and chair, with Toothless seated next to her. The dragon had leaned his head against her shoulder, tail curled around the legs of her seat.

Both let out a sigh simultaneously.

Toothless had bonded with Astrid more as Hiccup slept (though, of course, the Night Fury still spent most of the day watching over his boy). To Astrid, he acted like some kind of a scaled cat-dog. She subconsciously scratched him behind his ears (or, at least, what she thought was her ears), and he let out a soft rumble, resembling a purr.

They both watched the auburn-haired boy breathe shallowly in the room. It was cold by the bitter winter night, but the fire blazing in Hiccup's room's fireplace contrasted with the freezing temperature. The fire had been lit by his fellow ebony dragon.

Astrid and Toothless couldn't leave the house, even if they wanted to, anyways. Astrid had come for a visit to her unconcious... _friend_, but in that time, a harsh blizzard had begun to brew, so Stoick had offered her to stay (which meant that he would have refused to let her leave in the horrid weather).

The night dragged on, seeming to drag on forever, although winter days usually seemed shorter. The solstice would be the next day- if it wasn't midnight already, that is.

Toothless and Astrid fell asleep, leaning against each other and taking in deep, steady breaths.

Something very peculiar happened when midnight showed itself. But Astrid wouldn't be remembering it.

* * *

Astrid woke to the worried face of Toothless and the rumbling snores of Hiccup's father.

Dawn had peeked over the clouds of Berk, and any trace of a howling blizzard was gone. Astrid looked up at Toothless, who cooed in relief, dropping his head on her stomach in exasperation.

She looked around. She was in the same bed as Hiccup (she got up immediately at that thought, startling Toothless a bit before she started petting him). Wasn't she sitting on that chair the last night? What had happened? Toothless might be an overprotective dragon, but he looked very worried.

"I'm fine," she told him reassuringly. She must had had a bad nightmare last night, or something, and Toothless saw her face... or something.

If it was _that _bad, good thing that she didn't remember it...

Astrid looked over Hiccup. Strangely enough, he was breathing as strongly as she was. It wasn't a bad thing, she figured- maybe that meant he would wake up soon.

She quickly climbed down the stairs, shoving some food into her mouth before opening the door to the house. The fresh scent of snow greeted her, if it had a scent at all; she breathed it in invitingly. Toothless shot past her, cooing with his signature, silly toothless grin and rolling around in the snow. The Night Fury was one of the only dragons that didn't mind the snow as much, despite the fact that he was black and the snow was horrible for camouflage. It was nice to see that he was playing, instead of dwelling depressingly over Hiccup.

She saw Fishlegs and Ruffnut emerge from their houses. She greeted the other two of the first dragon riders with a curt wave, then looked back at Toothless. He was neck-deep in the snow, watching Astrid with a curious expression.

Even she couldn't help a laugh.

She decided to go in the training room- a bit of axe swinging wouldn't hurt much. She walked over to her destination, Toothless trotting behind her. She felt drowsy, for once in her life, and it surprised her.

She grabbed her axe easily. She threw it up in the air and caught it a few times. Was it just her, or did it feel a bit... heavier? Not letting that bother her, the Viking flung it at a nearby target. Toothless, who stayed smartly by her left side, watched quietly, not really scared of the weapon as much as he would have been if he hadn't met Hiccup before. Astrid felt the axe naturally depart from her right hand.

The axe, which was supposed to make a clean hit, instead skimmed the border of the target and bounced a little, rebounding slightly off the stone wall beyond. She looked at her arm confusedly. Was she having an off-day or something? Wait, why was she questioning herself all of a sudden? She was perfectly confident of her skills- maybe it was this strange tiredness aching in her bones today... that nightmare that she probably had had must had been bad.

Shaking her head, she moved over to archery. She only tried this when she was alone in the training ring, for she wasn't the best at it. In fact, archery wasn't really needed in the Viking society, for cattle and fish were the main diets of the village, but somehow she convinced herself to try it... and found that it was one of her more disliked skills by the first try, so she generally avoided it. It didn't mean that she couldn't get shots on a target with a bow and an arrow- they just weren't, er, _outstanding_ shots, or at least not as good as her usual axe throws.

She positioned herself to shoot, anyways. The world suddenly seemed just a tiny bit clearer, and she felt like she could focus on the target. Just her and the target...

She drew back her arm and the arrow landed on the bulls eye. Surprised, she drew another arrow and shot it again, splitting the first arrow in half when the second went straight though it.

A distant clapping sound could be heard. Astrid looked up abruptly and saw Ruffnut watching from outside, clapping slowly with her customary smirk on her face. Astrid frowned. Why hadn't she heard Ruffnut sneaking up on her? The more lithe Viking in the arena had keener ears than most.

"Okay, I have to admit, that was pretty impressive." Ruffnut grinned, then strolled away calmly. Astrid stared after her. The girl in the training ring frowned again- she must have gotten a lucky shot. Two lucky shots, that is...

She decided to train on some other things for now.

* * *

Dinner came all too quickly.

Seeing as the blizzard showed no sign of starting up again, Fishlegs, Snoutlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Gobber, and Astrid were gathered around a fire, munching into fish and meat around the blaze on one of their watch towers. Astrid tossed a fish to her Deadly Nadder, whom she had named Esmeralda. The dragon purred, nuzzling the female warrior's back affectionately before flying off to do whatever Deadly Nadders liked to do in their spare time. That meant that she was probably off to groom herself.

Everyone but Astrid had stories to tell, experiences to share. It didn't mean that Astrid didn't have any tales to tell- she just felt like watching, just for now, for some reason. Gobber's stories were always the most interesting, of course- your life might as well be as interesting as it can get when you've lost your hand and leg to a dragon. However, the blacksmith had his Terrible Terror, neatly coiled around his neck and snoring quietly.

Astrid found herself zoning out, staring up at the stars above her, where she was usually was sharp and listening to every word of her peers. What was going on? All day, she'd quickly become tired, as if something was sucking the life out of her. Okay, maybe that was an exaggeration, but she still felt drastically tired. Maybe it was because of that nightmare that she supposedly had and couldn't remember.

Her usual skills had been weakening, and she'd been feeling weaker, although she was more agile and even quicker on her feet than usual. Every time she tried archery, she had gotten perfect shots, which weirded her out to the point where she stopped trying it altogether. She was much less uncomfortable around the dragons, and she constantly found herself wanting to take hikes for no reason, as well as avoiding the people of the village, as if it were a yearly practiced habit. She was also feeling a little less confident than usual... like right now. She was questioning her skills, questioning herself, for about the tenth time that day.

She was glad when the meal was done; she was tired, and it seemed like the miniature feast had lasted much more than just twenty minutes.

She strolled around the mostly abandoned village a bit, finding herself not wanting to return to her home, although she usually came back home to sleep almost immediately. Astrid felt put off by her new, strange antics. Toothless had gone back to Hiccup after a couple hours with Astrid, then returned and again went back, which had served as good company, but she had caught herself observing more about the dragon than she had before. She found herself wandering to the chief's place. Wait- what? Why would she go there?

All of a sudden, she felt just a teensy bit less tired.

She stared up at the place, just standing there blankly, suspiciously feeling as if a small bucket of energy was gradually filling her up.

Something was going on here.

Astrid wasn't sure if she liked it.

Toothless's snores were slightly heard from the house. A rare smile quirked Astrid's face, and despite the fact that this strange happening probably had something to do with something in that house, she quickly turned to her home, settled lower downhill.

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**This should be short. Uht. Hopefully. Depends on the amount of ideas that spontaneously invade my mind. ;)**

**I used the word 'strange' a lot in this.  
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**Will you find out what Astrid dreamt of? Eventually.**


	2. It Lives

Astrid woke up in the morning, feeling more... _groggy_ than ever.

She had only just managed to haul herself out of bed- in a sitting position. It was probably two or three hours past dawn- a very late way to wake up, in her standards. Looking in a bowl of water nearby, she found herself with a nasty bedhead.

Something possessed her to just, well, shake herself like crazy.

Her hair was somewhat better, in the result of that act- good enough. She dragged herself across the floor, almost tripping over her own feet, raking some object through her hair and hoping that it was a comb or something. She began braiding her hair, and luckily, she was good enough at it due to habit that it made her look normal. She washed her face, although it didn't wash away much of her drowsiness with the waste. Reaching out in its usual spot to put on her headband, she discovered that she had never taken it off in the previous night.

When she limped downstairs, she greeted her mom with an incoherent grumble and stuffed her face with food as quickly as possible (at least one thing usual in her mornings). After that, she stumbled outside ungracefully.

The outside air sharpened her senses, if only a little. Perking up a bit, she looked around, slinking behind the building she had just exited and forgotten to close the door of to avoid sight. She pressed her back against the wall, sighing heavily.

A nice, abnormal thing to add to yesterday's events.

She looked around. Two boys were doing swordplay earlier in the morning, apparently, and they had left their wooden swords lying on the ground. Smiling a bit, Astrid stepped forward and picked it up, tossing it into the air like she did when she was warming up with her axe. She never really practiced much on the sword- or, at least, not as much as she did with her axe. In fact, she realized, she hadn't practiced with one in a matter of months.

Well, it was now or never.

Despite only having a wooden sword, she staggered a little with it at first- the results of the lack of practice. But soon enough, it was like an extension of her own arm. Even though she would have probably been excellent at swordplay anyways, this seemed almost unnatural to her. Never before, until now, had she felt as comfortable with a sword as she did now. She felt almost as eased with it as she was with her axe.

After a few more moments of swinging the sword around like paranoid person in the woods holding a lamp, she set it down quickly next to its untouched partner, looking around quickly to check if anyone had seen her before going under the shadow of her home once again.

She had a sudden urge to go and see Hic-

Er, _yeah_...

Well, if she had a need- er, _want_, then why not satiate it?

...okay, what in _Hel_ was wrong with her?

She trotted to the chief's house on the hill anyways.

* * *

Toothless was there to greet her, and rather enthusiastically.

She promptly seated herself on Hiccup's chair-stool thing, petting Toothless and listening to his rumbling purrs. She closed her eyes, kicking the legs of her seat a bit.

That bucket of energy was steadily filling up, faster than last night.

She snorted, eyes still closed. It was either the house, Stoick, Toothless, or Hiccup that had to do this. She wasn't an idiot. She could tell when something weird was going on. Suddenly, the bucket of energy seemed to tip much steeper-

"Astrid?" a voice choked out.

Astrid stopped petting Toothless, and her eyes snapped open to meet two other ones- green ones. The boy with auburn hair stared up at the girl with gold, biting his lip unintentionally, eyes wide in surprise.

"It lives!" she said, throwing her arms in the air in mock humor. Quickly realizing her uncharacteristic act, she brought her arms to her sides, trying not to blush too furiously.

Hiccup opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again before he was attacked with a mountain of dragon-licks.

Toothless was all over his rider, and despite him being utterly weak at the moment, Astrid snickered when the Night Fury tipped Hiccup over the bed. After the dragon had calmed down a bit, she made way around the bed, trying not to step on Toothless's tail. The oh-so-ferocious 'unholy offspring' was whimpering with joy and relief, tail thrashing and almost knocking over several of Hiccup's possessions. The poor boy was trying to struggle to his feet, but in his pitiful state, he had no chance of doing so. Astrid gave him a hand (again, uncharacteristically), which he took all too enthusiastically.

He grimly tried to push Toothless down against the ground to keep the dragon from tackling himself again, which he really didn't expect to succeed with. Imagine his surprise when the distracted Night Fury was flattened, looking up at his rider with eyes of pure surprise at his sudden strength.

"I-" Hiccup threw Astrid numerous nervous glances, which she only met with a blank stare. The girl had felt like some bug had sucked out a portion of her energy. "A-ah, s-sorry, bud!" He struggled to lift his dragon friend up, but apparently he had drained all of that sudden strength, for Toothless had needed to get up on his own. The excited cat-dog replica gave his friend a long, reassuringly accepting, and rather slimy lick.

"Ack! Ah, bud-" he said, wary of his physical appearance for once, and not just because of Astrid's presence, "-any other day, please!"

Toothless gave an adorable frown at his rider, flicking a (fortunately dry) rag at his head. The rag met its target, and due to dragon saliva, it was stuck to Hiccup's face, who just stood there.

Astrid burst out laughing.

When he should have been blushing like mad, Hiccup instead channeled that embarrassment into a oh-my-god-you-are-going-to-get-it glare directed in Toothless's general direction, rubbing the rag sloppily over his face and hair, and throwing it untidily across the room. Forgetting his leg for a moment, he leaned forward, planning to step with his prosthetic-less left leg. He almost instantaneously lost his balance, and found himself hurled onto Toothless's head.

Astrid stopped laughing.

She was slowly feeling like herself again. It was like she was regaining herself alongside Hiccup's regaining consciousness. She had faltered for a moment at the same time Hiccup had fallen, but she still handled him quite roughly, lifting him up by sliding her arms under his shoulders and hauling him on the bed. She could tell that he wasn't acting as usual, or at least as he usually did. And if you asked her how she knew that, she would have said a little too quickly that it was because she studied everything around her. Anyways, now she had an extremely strong suspicion that Hiccup had to do with recent events.

Hiccup seemed to have found his usual side, however, because he looked up at with a faint blush, like a baby. Astrid narrowed her eyes, feeling more like her old self by the second and resisting a snort as she looked away.

After a few moments, Hiccup questioned, "So, er, what happened since the feast?"

Astrid rolled her eyes and sighed, plopping down on Hiccup's chair-stool and trying to keep her eyes on the still-excited Toothless, who was half-lying on Hiccup's bed. She scratched behind the Night Fury's ears, and Hiccup scratched Toothless's favorite neck spots that Astrid still had yet to figure out.

"So, um, you kind of... collapsed in the middle of the feast, and all," Astrid started, getting a taste of Hiccup's dry humor on her own tongue.

"Oh, _wonderful_," Hiccup said in a more masterful, sarcastic Hiccup-tone.

"Everyone started freaking out, and the elder and a bunch of healers were swarming all around you. In no time, they had you here, and Toothless was spazzing to the point where some other Vikings had to hold him down."

Toothless let out a rumbling growl, eyes half-lidded.

"I convinced him to get away, thank Thor he listened to me, although you could say we're more like friends now." Astrid was beginning to feel more comfortable at this point, although she was still (rather, finally) becoming her more stiff self again... mostly.

"They treated you, took care of your leg. They said that it was because of_ terrible pain_," she said in a rather suspicious tone, eying Hiccup with narrowed eyes. He choked, coughed, and motioned for her to go on, now sitting up in his bed and reaching over Toothless's neck to scratch his back, making him purr contentedly.

"Anyways, it's been a week and a day since you've been asleep," she finished. "Not much happened during that. The dragons are getting along well, and-"

"A week and a day?" Hiccup asked incredulously. "Odin help me, I've got to go and-"

"_Nope_," Astrid said strictly, "you are _not_ getting out of this bed, or at least alone."

To strengthen that statement, she pinned him with a single arm, now feeling at least half-strengthened and almost completely like herself again. Hiccup let out a wry smile as he looked up at his not-quite-girlfriend, but as of this moment, friend.

"Well, can I at least go outside on Toothless?"

Toothless was already crouching invitingly on the ground.

"Okay," Astrid agreed after a moment, "but no flying."

Both boys moaned in protest.

* * *

As you could imagine, Hiccup's conscious appearance stirred up a crowd.

First, uncomfortable staring.

Second, the making way of four certain kids, greeting the one-legged boy enthusiastically as he sat on his dragon.

Third, the whole of the village, including Hiccup's dad, swarming all over him with congratulations and remarks on how utterly _worried_ they were.

After the, erm, _greetings_ were done, the six of the once dragon-training trainees simply stood there, talking and laughing among themselves, overall a good thing. They all found themselves walking to the training ring, and all but Toothless walked inside, Snoutlout trying to crack lame jokes being what ended the merry conversation. Toothless watched from outside, ready to help if Hiccup collapsed on his prosthetic again.

Hiccup leaned forward, picking up whatever item he grabbed on the ranks. Surprisingly enough, he found an axe in his hand, and he was carrying it almost effortlessly.

And then he found himself throwing it in the air.

And catching it.

All the while, he found stares being pointed in his direction, though Astrid's was the most intense. He coughed subtly, flinging the axe away, behind himself.

"You, come, here," Astrid commanded, grabbing Hiccup's arm in a death grip and pulling him into a corner.

"Honestly A-Astrid, I don't know what's going on, I just picked up the axe and threw it up and I was catching it a-and-"

"I'm not accusing you of anything," Astrid interrupted roughly. "Other than the fact that you're an idiot for trying to work with a weapon while you're so weak. But, whatever- stay here."

She shuffled off, coming back with a bow and arrow. Hiccup stared at it for a moment, then shook his head vigorously. "N-no, I can't do archery, I mean, what would it matter if I can do archery? It's basically useless, and-"

"And I take it that you're really good at it," Astrid stated, eyes half-lidded in knowing. It was easy to see that with his awkward denying, he really meant the opposite of what he was saying.

Hiccup slowly nodded, looking at his feet, organic and metal and all.

Astrid left and came back with a sword. Hiccup looked at it and gulped a little.

"So you can do swordplay as well?" she questioned, looking at the boy before her intently.

He nodded again.

"Okay, that's it," she said. "Just so you know, I suck at sword fighting and archery, or at least I'm not the best at it, though I have no proof. And all of a sudden, since yesterday, I've been feeling more tired, weaker, but yet quicker. I'm suddenly sucking at throwing my axe, but I can get a bulls eye with an arrow. I tried using a sword, and I was freaking wonderful at it. Not just that. All of a sudden, I want to waste my time taking hikes, and I'm always wanting to avoid people." She leaned against the stone wall, closing her eyes with a sigh.

"Is that... a question?" Hiccup half-questioned, half-demanded.

Silence.

Then, "I think... maybe... uh..."

Astrid looked up hopefully.

"...no, I have no idea."

She fell silent again, head dropping in thought.

"Hiccup!"

Both the boy's and the girl's heads snapped up, eyes analytical and alarmed. Fishlegs winced a little bit in front of them. "Um, sorry... I just..." He went off without another word, other than a few confused mutters.

Astrid turned to look at Hiccup again. "You see that? You were acting just like me, there. You'd usually be zoning out and look up all slow-like."

"And you know that how?" Hiccup asked accusingly, perking an eyebrow.

Astrid shook her head. "You just did it again! Never mind that, we just need to figure out what the heck's going on here, and how to stop it."

"And I have no idea whatsoever about what's going on, so I'm going to go feed Toothless now," Hiccup stated decidedly, beginning to turn awkwardly and walk away as hastily as possible.

Astrid rolled her eyes and mumbled something that sounded suspiciously like 'yeah, just go feed the fish whore'. An idea pricked her mind, however, and she pulled out a small dagger that she kept in one of her many handy spots- her boot.

"Um, Astrid, what are you-" Hiccup gasped when Astrid cut her pinky finger slightly.

His own finger felt like it had been cut open, and he gasped once again.

But he had no time to check it.

Because, that's when the alarms began to blare.

* * *

**Cliiiiiiiiiiffs... are fun. You fall off of them.**


	3. Connective Raid

**Thanks for the reviews, guys... I'm not giving up yet.**

**But I have to do this quickly, because I need to get to school... so no review responses for now. ^^;**

* * *

"RAID!"

Strangled shouts of Vikings and forceful roars of dragons signified an event that had already happened many times before. The more experienced Vikings already had their weapons out, marching towards the oncoming boats.

Cannons boomed with undying force and the black orbs rained down on the village, however much they missed the houses. Many mothers and their younger children were retreating to the farther-in parts of the island already, to avoid the round missiles.

"What are you still doing, standing here!" Astrid growled, shoving Hiccup onto Toothless's saddle. He quickly scrambled into a better position on the Night Fury's back. "Go! And don't you _dare_ think of trying to help!"

Unfortunately for Astrid, that was exactly what Hiccup was planning to do.

Everyone piled out from the training ring, before a cannon ball landed square in the spot where Ruffnut and Tuffnut were fighting, just a few moments ago. Just another thing to fix; ever since peace was made with the dragons, raiders had taken their chances with tamed dragons rather than wild ones. Each time, they failed to gain anything from the Vikings of Berk. However, when they found how powerful Berk was with the dragons on their side, they had unsuccessfully tried stealing some of them.

Today was just another attempt.

As if they could even tame a dragon.

Astrid bravely picked up an axe, whistling for Esmeralda as she ran. The Nadder seemed to come out of nowhere, landing with a thump in front of her momentarily startled rider. Both blasted into the sky as soon as Astrid was settled and strapped in the brown saddle.

The thrill of flight was immediately replaced by the urgency of the fight. Numerous dragons spiraled through the sky, with or without riders, wasting their shots on the seemingly endless numbers of ships. The raiders were returning fire, cannonballs flying through the air in all directions.

They_ really _wanted a dragon to bring home, apparently.

Astrid screamed out a war cry as Esmeralda dipped, and she sliced her axe through a ship's sail, preventing it from going any further without going off track. But she couldn't check to see the damage that had been done, because of the cannon balls threatening to land on her.

Esmeralda and Astrid raced from ship to ship, both dragon and rider strategically slicing through ship's sails. But eventually this reign had to end.

And not in the way one would hope.

The ships were running out of ammo, and had begun shooting up arrows. The few men that weren't corpses yet were either trying to frantically sail away or were shooting arrows in random directions._ Just like the rest_, Astrid chuckled internally.

But she jinxed herself, she realized, as an arrow found itself into her right arm.

She yelped in pain, immediately tearing the arrow from her skin. Not the best reflex, she realized, as blood began to pour from the wound.

Esmeralda had already smelled the sticky, red substance, and had turned her neck to inspect it, eyes wide with worry.

"No, girl... bring me... down, girl," she wheezed. The wound was taking more of a toll than she expected, even with her weaker state.

Too late.

Another arrow was buried in her right side this time, and even she couldn't help but let out a short screech. Esmeralda screeched with her, abruptly dipping to the ground. Astrid felt sick to her stomach, too weak to pull the arrow from her side. She felt the steady lope of her Deadly Nadder, retreating into the forest, before the world went black.

**

* * *

**

Everything had been going fine.

Hiccup, had led Toothless to the sky, only thankful that his leg wasn't paining him at the moment. Toothless seemed to have infinite shots of his neon blue dragon's fire as he tore his darkened claws into the sails of the enemy. They had fought tirelessly for hours, Night Fury and village wreck. The two had collaborated perfectly as they wrenched pillagers from the ground and into the sea, as they ripped holes into the wood of numerous boats with mastered flight skills, as they blasted flames into the decks of nearing ships...

Then, a terrible pain seared through his right arm. Hiccup screamed out, clutching it and almost forgetting to change the gears of Toothless's tail fin, and Toothless had cried out as well, in worry, eying his rider with a widened yellow-green eye.

And the pain was gone.

Hiccup could have sworn that an arrow had torn into his flesh, but his arm was fine. However, an uncomfortable feeling was coursing through the areas on his arm, like it had fallen asleep. It was intense and annoying, but Hiccup could tell that something was wrong otherwise.

His pinky finger felt the same as his arm.

"Crap," he hissed.

Then, the same pain tore through his side, and he cried out before the pain sunk to that tingling feeling again. And that was when he connected the feeling in his pinky to the rest of his body.

Something had happened to Astrid.

"Astrid!" he cried out, looking around frantically, previous pain forgotten. Where was she? He could have sworn that he saw the bright blue and gold of her dragon, just moments ago...

Those two colors flashed in the corner of his eye.

Hiccup snatched the reins of his dragon's saddle and pulled toward the forest with all of his might.

**

* * *

**

No one could fully describe the look of horror on Hiccup's face when he finally caught up to Astrid's fleeing dragon.

"Odin, help...!" he cried out, stumbling off of Toothless, who caught him when the boy instantly tripped. Esmeralda saved the auburn-haired boy the trouble of stumbling over to Astrid's limp form by sneaking over to the boy herself, Astrid still on her back.

"What happened?" he asked no one in particular as Esmeralda carefully lifted up Astrid and rested the girl on the ground. Fresh, warm blood was oozing out of her arm, and there was an arrow in her side, both wounds cut open by arrowheads shot at uneven angles...

..._right in the exact places where Hiccup was feeling strange._

And he began to put two and two together.

He tried to breathe deeply and steadily, trying not to give in to Astrid's quick and shallow breathing. He found her matching his steady pace, and it was enough to weird him out, even with the revelations he was making.

Where the normal Hiccup would be panicking, he was calm and stiff.

Where the normal Hiccup would faint at the sight of Astrid's blood, he was only intent on stopping it.

Where the normal Hiccup would be bringing Astrid back to the village, he knew that if he did so, she wouldn't make it alive.

He had to act fast. Astrid would d... di... well, something bad would happen to Astrid if she lost too much blood, he knew. But where could he get bandages? The bandages that were already on the girl's arms, as accessories weren't thick enough to hold the bleeding at bay.

Hiccup sniffed slightly as he looked at the fur vest he was wearing. He could use that...

But, that was from his mother, before she passed... but, Astrid was dieing... but... it could infect her, and... but...

He sighed in relief as he remembered the bandages he always kept in one of Toothless's saddlebags.

He clambered up to his feet, almost sinking to the ground with his and Astrid's weakness combined, and grabbed the bag with the bandages in it. But, the world was becoming disoriented... ever so blurry...

Ahh! Don't like Astrid's wounds get to you, Hiccup! The boy slapped himself for good measure. The girl's exhaustion was creeping up his bones, but he fought to keep awake... for Astrid's sake...

This sounded so_ weird _in his head.

He collapsed to the ground, grunting as he crawled back over to Astrid, bag in hand. He looked sullenly into the bag when he discovered it empty.

Odin bless him, Toothless handed the real bag to the disoriented Hiccup.

Okay. Hiccup unwrapped the bandages, hands shaking and bile rising in his throat at the sight and smell of the blood. He blessed Toothless with all of his soul when the Night Fury coiled up behind him as a back support, cooing softly in worry. Esmeralda was restraining herself from getting too close to Astrid as Hiccup tried to do his patchwork.

The boy felt like throwing up as he pulled out a herb that was known for soothing infections and rubbed it all over Astrid's arm wound. She moaned, and he moaned along with her, feeling particularly queasy. It showed that neither Astrid nor he was a very big fan of healing.

He wrapped the bandages around her arm, and the tingling feeling in his arm slowly loosened on its intensity, showing that his technique was working, somewhat.

He could almost see his face turning as green as his eyes when he looked at Astrid's side. He had to pull that out. _He_ had to pull that out. The blood he was imagining to gush out was already sickening him. He needed to figure out a way to stop the blood before it kil... killed Astrid.

The scent of the drying blood was getting to him, and he tipped his head to the side to empty the little breakfast he had had in between waking up and stepping out of the house that morning. Wiping the remnants of vomit from his mouth, and shivering violently, he looked back to Astrid.

Hiccup quickly looked over the wound made by the arrow in Astrid's side, before shutting his eyes at the gruesome sight. The arrow embedded in her arm was clumsily torn out, probably by the girl herself as she was flying, creating a longer but shallower wound. However, the wound in her side was more like a small, but deep hole. He cursed whoever shot the arrow.

A raider archer sneezed as he drowned.

Hiccup created a wad of bandages in his hand, then grabbed the arrow, struggling to keep consciousness. Sleep was beginning to overtake him; he internally flailed to stay awake. He neatly pulled the arrow out of the wound, then swiftly applied the bandages to the wound, stopping most of the blood from leaking out. Astrid hissed in pain in her sleep, and one of the few last portions of Hiccup's energy was torn away from him. He refused to succumb to the recesses of unconsciousness.

He sat there, slumped over, for about five minutes. Then, he slowly turned Astrid over on her uninjured side, making both of the teens groan. Hiccup felt horrible for causing the blond so much pain; he could tell by the harsh feeling in his own right side.

He gradually removed the wad of bandages, tossing the bloodied mass far away in disgust. Astrid's position helped prevent too much blood from leaking out. Hiccup quickly prepared bandages, deeply relieved when the Deadly Nadder before him lifted her up.

There was a problem.

Hiccup blushed a deep red. He would have to take off- no, just roll up Astrid's shirt to get to her wound. But, what did that matter in this situation? Black tickled the corners of his vision now, making the part of him that was still awake frantic.

He rolled up her shirt, trying not to think of it much, and swiftly rubbed the herb around the wound, then wrapped the bandages around her body before patting the shirt back down. See, it wasn't that bad, was it, Hiccup?

Esmeralda, sensing that the treatment was over, sighed in relief, collapsing next to her rider. Hiccup watched sadly as the worried Nadder coiled up next to Astrid, the tingling feeling dissipating by half in his arm and side. He took it as a good sign...

Hiccup was too tired to yawn. His eyes were closed, and he had blacked out before his head hit the ground next to Astrid's.

Toothless and Esmeralda curled around their riders, tails intertwining over their feet, offering their protection and warmth for the night to come in a few hour's time.


End file.
